At the beginning of July 2010 the Cape Town Fashion Council secured the approval of R12.3 million from the DTI’s Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Improvement Programme (CTCIP) grant scheme to establish a Fashion Cluster.

After the participatory programme design process was completed, all CTFC known designers were invited to participate. Those that responded to the deadline and who met the following criteria were engaged to join:

• Clothing brands that are members of the CTFC
• South African citizens / residents
• Clothing designers who have had a brand market presence in South Africa for at least a year
• Brands with at least 75% of their products manufactured in South Africa
• Businesses that are legally registered in South Africa. Businesses must be able to produce tax clearance certificates
• Clothing labels that have a recognized brand identity and online presence in South Africa

The Fashion Cluster function is to promote the growth of local design brands which manufacture in South Africa; those creating and sustaining jobs by competitive product design (and good business acumen) rather than competing only on price. Their growth leads to growth in sustainable manufacturing employment – approximately one sustained job per annual retails sales values of approximately R250 000. The 23 design brands that have signed up to form part of this cluster sustain approximately 1000 – 1100 jobs in manufacturing, and another 80 – 100 jobs in design functions. Retail jobs created are not counted. Qualified design brands that are part of this Cluster will benefit directly, e.g. through an improved understanding of how to grow a successful clothing brand, financial support to investigate new retail partnerships, access to a wider variety of fabrics in small quantities at better prices and with faster response times.

The cluster will be facilitated by the Cape Town Fashion Council (CTFC). This initiative focuses primarily on designers as beneficiaries, but includes retailers, media, and support institutions as development partners.

Five areas have been targeted for improvement:

• Designers’ ability to develop a strong clothing brand,
• Market reach of South African designer clothes,
• Leverage of events and media to increase market awareness,
• Reducing fabric availability barriers, and
• Reliability of delivering on-time.

The following challenges have been defined to be addressed by the Cluster Programme.

• Outcome 1: Increased insight by SA designers of how to improve richness (affinity, trust) of clothing brands\
• Outcome 2: Improved distribution channels for SA designers
• Outcome 3: SA designer clothing is easier for customers to find
• Outcome 4: Improved efficacy of producing designer clothing from a SA manufacturing base
• Outcome 5: Cluster activities executed to meet objectives, with good governance

A programme steering committee will oversee implementation, improvements to and governance of the programme and the CTFC will function as the secretariat. The cluster is expected to start at the beginning of 2011 (upon receipt of funding).